


Traps and Heartbeats

by Smutmebby



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Post Recall, Reader Insert, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-07-19 18:53:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7373467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smutmebby/pseuds/Smutmebby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You decided to break into the supposedly abandoned Overwatch base Gibraltar one night, unfortunately a certain junker had the same idea as you. When the base turns out to be not abandoned, but fully inhabited by the newly recalled Overwatch team you and Junkrat are given the chance to join that team - willingly or unwillingly. Maybe after a while your nose will get accustomed, and he won't smell so bad. You hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Is that a fucking bear trap?!"

“This place doesn’t seem very deserted…” Your friend mumbled from behind you, you waved a non-committal hand at her to hush her worries. Sneaking through the abandoned base of Gibraltar, the previous home of Overwatch, had been on your bucket list since you had watched the old videos of their glory days in history class.

“Of course it’s abandoned, Overwatch was disbanded. Why would they hang out here anymore?” Despite your confident words you were still careful to sneak through the shadows up the stair to the the tower above. Just because the members of Overwatch might now be here, didn’t mean someone else wouldn’t be.

“I’m pretty sure what we’re doing is all kinds of illegal.” Despite the disapproval in her tone, Sylvie still followed you up the stairs. She had been all for the idea up until they reached the gates, then she had found her cold feet.

“Nobody said you had to come, you can always go back and wait for me by the gate.” You looked out the door to the bridge ahead of you. You weren’t sure whether crossing it would be too risky or not. If someone was standing guard by the door they would easily spot you, but if they happened to be looking anywhere else the darkness would hopefully shroud your movements.

“No way, if you pull this off I want part of the credit.” You smiled. When you had suggested you guys break into the abandoned Overwatch base and look for old blueprints or tech that had been left behind Sylvie had stars in her eyes. It was no secret that Overwatch had some great scientists, who knows what they had been working on inside there before their disband.

You peeked out from the doorway, eyeing the front door carefully. No guards. Odd, but welcomed. You took a careful step out from the doorway and slowly walked across the bridge, stopping after every step to scan the area for movement other than your own. When you made it halfway across you motioned back for your friend to follow.

“You’d think there would be at least police or something guarding this place?” She whispered as you two finally made it to the other stairwell. “Maybe there isn’t anything worth stealing in there.”

“There has to be,” You headed down the stairs, glancing over your shoulder at her. “Besides we’re not stealing we’re just b-

“(Y/N)!’ Sylvie grabbed your arm and pulled you back, causing you to fall back and slam your tailbone into one of the steps. You groaned as the pain set into the lower back and legs, about to yell at her when you realized what she had pulled you back from stepping on.

“Is that a fucking bear trap?!” You half yelled, only remembering to keep yourself decently quiet. You both froze, listening to the silent night for any sound that someone had heard you, but after a couple minutes without noise, Sylvie moved to help you to your feet. “A bear trap though?” You looked down at the opposing item, sitting in the middle of the doorway. You would have lost a leg if you had stepped on that.

“Do you think this is how they guard the place? Booby trap it?” Sylvie had a touch of panic in her voice, and you couldn’t blame her. For the first time since hopping the gate at the front you realized that your actions could have dangerous consequences. Despite the regret starting to set in, you were determined to at least get to the door before giving up.

“It’s probably just left over from some kids, with all the tech that Overwatch had I doubt they’d resort to a hunk of metal like this.” Gently you used your foot to slide the bear trap as far left in the hallway as you could. Determined not to set it off, you both hugged the wall as you maneuvered around it to the exit. You would be more careful with where you stepped from now on though.

You were almost to the front door, you felt adrenaline pump through you from just looking at the rounded door.Faster than before you snuck up to it, ignoring the protests from your friend behind you as you ignored cover for the remaining meters and ran up the steps to the door. It was much larger up close and you had to stand back to admire it.

“I never thought I’d be thing close..” you whispered to nobody in particular.Reaching out hesitantly to lay a hand on the smooth, painted metal. Ever since you enrolled in Gilbraltar University for Technological Advancement you had dreamed of setting foot in the Overwatch base. It was no secret that the Overwatch team used some pretty impressive tech, although many argued they had been surpassed by other groups and companies. But you always thought they had more to offer; the talents on Overwatch were far too great for you to believe that they didn’t have more in the works when they were disbanded. You hoped to find their half finished work and make it whole.

“How are we supposed to get in?” Sylvie had caught up to you, breaking your admiration of the door with her hard reality. You hadn’t thought this far in advance, but what were you expecting? For the door to just be open?

“I guess they wouldn’t have left a window open, would they?” You glanced up, the only window you could see seemed to be an observatory on the second floor, but you had no way of getting to it even if it was open, which it didn’t seem to be. “There has to be some sort of keyhole or device that tells the door to open. If we could find that, I can probably override it.” Overconfident. You were pretty sure you what would actually happen would be you staring at the controls for an hour before taking a picture of it with your phone and going home frustrated.

“What about this?” Sylvie had wandered over to watch looked like the hinge of the door, where a small, circular device with a small blinking light was sticking off the door. 

“Whatever it is, its still functional.” You knelt down, pulling out your penlight to get a closer look at it; it looked pretty crude, as if it had been made in a hurry from scrap metal. It also reeked of something you couldn’t quite get a hold of. You reached into your back pocket and pulled out a small multi-tool you always had on you. “It doesn’t look like it matches the door though.” Sylvie knelt down behind you as you pried the top lid off the device. 

You stared at the inside of device for what felt like hours. Not quite comprehending what you were looking at, but the twisting in your gut told you you knew exactly what it was.

“(Y/N)....” Sylvie stood up, tugging at your shirt sleeve, but you still knelt there, multi-tool posed as if ready for battle. “We need to go. Now.” You knew she was right, but your eyes were still scanning the bomb, your hands moving to push aside some of the wire delicately. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“There’s too big of a power supply here for us to outrun. If it goes off and we’re anywhere in the area, we’re dead.” Your voice was more controlled than your thoughts as you tried to remember any lecture, any textbook reading that told you how to disarm a bomb.

“We don’t know if it’s going to go off or not. It could be a dud for all we know and you poking around in it could set it off.” You didn’t answer her, you flipped the omni-tool to the pocket knife and started sizing up the wires. “(Y/N)! Seriously!”

“Listen Sylvie, this bomb is remote controlled. That means someone is here, someone with that controller, and they’re watching.” Your hands started to shake a little and you clenched your teeth in an effort to stop it. “Disarming it is the only guaranteed safety. If we run we might make it. Or we might not.”

“This isn’t class (Y/N), you might know a lot about bombs, but you’ve never disarmed one.” You didn’t answer her, you were too busy deciding which wire to cut. It felt like a movie to you. Red wire or blue wire? You could feel the tension radiating off Sylvie, but you tried to let it slide off you. After a few minutes she came back and knelt beside you. “Which one are you thinking?”

You pondered for a second. “I don’t think I need to cut a wire. I think its a trick.” You closed the scissors and bit you lip. “A fucking clever one.” You looked over every last inch of the inside of the bomb, but you couldn’t see anything that looked like a disarm. The entire thing looked like a booby trap. Such a shitty looking bomb, but such a genius design.

You were convinced that nothing inside the bomb would disarm it. Was it in the controller? You doubted it. You just needed to disconnect the power supply from the explosive material. But nothing on the inside was explosive. Maybe it was a dud? Carefully you reached out and touched the edge of the bomb, running a finger across the dirty metal, looking for something.

You finger snagged on a dent and your heart jumped. Carefully you looked around the side, directing the penlight to the source of the disfigurement. A small dent, leading to what seemed to be a hollow pocket under the metal. Carefully you pried the metal pieces back from the bomb, doing your very best to be gentle so as not to disturb it. You revealed the inside to Sylvie.

“Well shit.” She looked at you impressed. Along the inside of what looked to be useless metal was the actual wire that connected the bomb to the power source. Quickly, mostly so you wouldn’t have time to think, you popped out the pocket knife and sliced the wire in half. 

The red light went out. Nothing else happened.

It was moments before you could breathe again, and then all you could do was laugh. High pitched, delirious laughter that you couldn’t control. Sylvie joined you, and soon both of you were in tears on the ground in front of a dismantled bomb.

“If only the professor could see you, he’s have to pass you for sure.” Sylvie giggled, wiping the tears away from her eyes. You snorted, you had been near failing your classes for a while.

“Too bad we can’t tell him.” You looked down at the bomb, maybe you could bring some of it with you? You slung off your backpack and gently placed the pieces in it. Sylvie eyed you and you snorted again, “I’m not gunna show him, this is just for my own review.” You both stood up, you could feel an ache in your back and remembered that you had wipe out on the stairs. You would feel that in the morning. “I guess this is too much excitement for one day, isn’t it?” Sylvie nodded and you grabbed her arm, turning around and heading back for the hallway.

All you could think about was the hot bath that you would run when you got home when you heard a metallic snap echo from the hallway. You and Sylvie froze, your heart slamming against your chest.

“Bloody bear trap!” You heard a female voice yell from inside the hallway before the ground started to rumble, you turned around to see smoke rising into the sky from the other side of the base as one after one you heard the sound of metal being hit with explosives. You didn’t even pause before you grabbed Sylvie’s hand and took off running for the gates. Fuck cover, fuck the guards. You realized where there was one bomb there were bound to be more. After all, one wasn’t going to bring down that massive door you saw.

Running around the corner you could feel the pain in your back become blinding but Sylvie’s harsh grip on your hand reminded you that pain was better than death and you kept running. While running your eye caught a quick flash and suddenly a girl was standing in one of the doorways on the right.

“Over here! Quickly!” You didn’t even consider the consequences, just pulled yourself and Sylvie towards the girl and down into the hallway. “There’s a bunker in here, you’ll be safe.” She pushed you into a bunker rather harshly and slammed the door behind you. 

Breathing heavily you and Sylvie exchanged terrified looks, listening the sounds of explosions in dead silence until nothing was left. Still neither of you said a word until the door re-opened and the girl stood there again.

“Now then, would you two kindly come with me? My friends would like to see ya.” The girl you now recognized to be Tracer placed her hands on her hips and smiled kindly.

It was then that you realized that Gibraltar was most definitely not abandoned. But you were most definitely going to be in trouble.


	2. Chapter 2

Nobody seemed concerned about cuffing you, though you received a few stern looks from a few of the Overwatch members when Tracer brought you in. Everyone was mostly pre-occupied with the other intruder they had found, though they weren’t in the room with you there was quite a large commotion coming from another room where you could only imagine what they were doing. Many loud crashes of things falling and loud, incoherent bickering was all you could pick up.

Although you weren’t paying attention. You were mostly looking at the huge figure of Winston, THE WINSTON, standing in front of you. He was looking you over with a contemplative eye while you were just stunned that one of the greatest minds of Overwatch was standing right in front of you. Sylvie’s hands were at your elbow, and you spared her a glance to see she was equally as in awe.

“They don’t look like the types to be working with junkers.” The accented voice of the woman standing beside him chided, you tore your eyes away from Winston’s suit to recognize her as Mercy - Overwatch’s top medic. The Doctor looked you up and down, you could only assume to assess for injuries, but she was also watching you critically. You wanted to say something, but you felt like you had to wait for the silent jury to pass their judgement first.

“No, they don’t.” Winston moved to a monitor, pulling up what appear to be security footage showing you and Sylvie moving through the hallways and stairs of the facility. Particularly the image of you being pulled away from the bear trap in the stairwell. You figured that the trap probably belonged to whoever was making the hassle in the other room, and honestly you were kind of relieved. The thought of Overwatch having such a shitty security installation would have dampened your excitement to be finally standing inside Gibraltar. “If you weren’t working with him, then what were you doing with the bomb?” Winston enlarged the image of you and Sylvie kneeling in front of said bomb. You didn’t speak, you were still entranced by the idea of Winston. Somehow it was just dawning on you that not only was her the scientist you wrote papers on, but he was also a Gorilla.

“She defused it.” Sylvie said, elbowing you enough for you to come back from your musings. Winston raised his eyebrows, and even Mercy seemed surprised.

“Defused? How would you know how to do something like that?” Suspicion was creeping into the Medic’s tone, this time you managed to find your voice.

“I’m a student at Gibraltar University, I study a lot of technological advancements,” you paused, realizing that that wouldn’t explain how you knew how to defuse a bomb, “I uh I have a minor in pyrotechnics, with a special focus on explosives...such as bombs...I guess.” You sounded even more awkward than you had intended, not sure who to look at while you offered your explanation so you settled on looking down at your hands, realizing they were covered in dirt probably from defusing the bomb.

“Mighty good you were around then love.” Tracer suddenly appeared in the room, a flash of blue seeming to precede her. She winked at you, giving a warm smile fitting to her reputation, then directed her attention to the other Overwatch members. “He’s all clean now - well uh, figuratively speaking only unfortunately.” She made a face, then there was only blue and she was on the other side of the room.

“We’ll deal with him after these two.” Winston adjusted his glasses and moved to stand in front of you again. You found that no matter how scrutinizingly he looked at you, you couldn’t see him as anything other than pleasant. All the things you had read about him, all the advancements he had made while working with overwatch, it was everything you had to not launch into the millions of questions you had for him. The only thing that kept you quiet was the very real knowledge that you were here because you were in trouble. “If you didn’t come to break into our base, then why were you hanging around here?”

You felt Sylvie’s eyes on you, you had to make a decision. You could lie and possibly get out of trouble, say it was a dare from some kids at school to get pictures at Gibraltar and you didn’t think anything of it, but you were a terrible liar and if they caught on you would probably be in more trouble than you would be otherwise. Besides, lies were better if they were set up beforehand, and unfortunately your ego had prevented the idea of a backup plan if you were caught because you frankly didn’t think that you would be. So instead you did your best not to meet the scientist’s eyes, as you mumbled out the truth.

“We uh we did come to, well…we were trying to break in.” You looked up the the plastered walls, noticing the obvious patchwork in them to indicate that some time ago there had been many holes blasted, punched or whatever happened into them. “Only out of curiosity though,” you continued almost casually as you tried to inspect the room, imagining what might have happened in here when the group was together. “We’re studying technological advancements and everyone knows that Overwatch had the best scientists when it was running.” You made brief eye contact with Winston and immediately dropped it and fell silent

“We were just hoping to find scraps of projects or blueprints that we could look at,” Sylvie picked up, giving your arm a quick, reassuring squeeze. “We didn’t honestly think anyone would be here.”

There was a pregnant pause in the room, Winston and Mercy seemed to be eyeing each other, most likely trying to silent decide if they believed the story or not. There was a loud break in the silence from the other room, what sounded like someone hitting the wall following by voices in a mixture of swearing and reprimand.

“We should probably deal with that one.” Winston came closer to you and Sylvie, kneeling down so he was at proper eye level. “Unfortunately we’re going to have to ask you to stay with us a little, at least a few days while we run some basic security scans and background checks just to make sure. Can never be too careful, especially since Overwatch isn’t supposed to be running right now.” He gave you a small smile, “we’ll get everything sorted out after we’ve settled the real problem, so if you want to go with Lena, she’ll get you guys some food.” You nodded slightly, allowing his large hand to usher you towards Tracer who was still smiling as if this entire ordeal did nothing to faze her. She stood in between you and Sylvie, hooking her arms through each of yours and pulling you in the direction of the other room. You kept glancing back over your shoulder, you hoped this wasn’t the last chance you’d have to speak with the scientist, you had so many questions that you’d never thought you’d get a chance to ask.

“Don’t worry loves,” Tracer near whispered as she pulled you out of the room. “There’s an upstairs room that has a mirror, you won’t be able to hear but we can still watch.” She winked at you and you couldn’t help the smile that bloomed to your face. You already loved her and you hadn’t even spoken to her yet.

“We have to stay here? Are there even places to sleep in this base?” Sylvie was looking around the hall as they were being escorted to the stairs that must lead to the room Tracer had mentioned. The front of the base did look cold and medical, but you guessed there had to be more to it under the cliffside, especially since this base used to house all of overwatch and their various training rooms.

“The rooms are small, but they work.” She hummed slightly as she seemed to think about it “Since we’re missing a lot of people, there’s a lot of rooms to choose from. So I’ll let you take your pick.”

“How long are we staying.” You asked, though you weren’t much concerned. Staying in overwatch for any amount of time was a dream come true. You lived alone anyway, so the only thing you’d have to worry about would be making it to class - but even then there was only a month or so left till it was out.

“Don’t know love.” She gave you an apologetic look as you reached the stairs, “The big guy will run a background check, to make sure you aren’t actually spies for anyone, but we still have to worry about the word getting out that Overwatch is gathering again.” It made sense, not that you would dream of telling anyone about Overwatch, or rather you would dream about it but would never actually do it. Besides, it was only Friday, and you didn’t have class on Monday. A few days wouldn’t cause any harm.

“Do you think I’d have a chance to talk to Winston about his projects with Overwatch?” You started mentally making a list of things you’d love to ask him, “maybe he can go over some of my notes on some things I’ve been working on? Oh I’d love to know how he made your chronal accelerator! That’s one of the most amazing advancements of our time.” You glanced down at the glowing fixture, making Tracer laugh.

“I’m sure he could spare a few minutes for ya somewhere hun.” She ushered you into what looked like a security room, with a large window that looked down on the main hallway you were in. She blinked away and came back with some water bottles and granola bars, offering a brief apology as she sat down beside the two of you. “We’ve only recently come back, so the kitchen isn’t fully functional. You cracked your bottle open and took a long sip, realizing just how thirsty you were.

“Who are they?” Sylvie was leaning forward, looking down on the scene below. You scooted forward, looking down with her. Winston and Mercy were still there but they were joined by three others. One of them being the biggest man you’d ever seen.

“The bigger guy is Reinhardt, he’s a dear. The cowboy is McCree, he’s a sweetheart.” She took a bite of her granola bar as you studied the two other members over. You didn’t know everyone in overwatch, mostly you just knew about their tech, but you had heard McCree’s name plenty of times in the news; he was one of the most wanted men in America.

“I guess the last guy’s the bomber?” You looked at the third man. He looked like he had just crawled through the smoke of his own bombs. Covered in soot, with torn clothes - well pants, since he wasn’t wearing a shirt. There were tan lined where he had obviously been wearing something that was taken from him though it was hard to see from this high what he might’ve been wearing. You also noticed his peg leg - far from the advanced prosthetics that Overwatch could provide. He seemed to be cuffed, looking around almost wildly as Winston gestured while he spoke words that you couldn’t hear behind the glass.

“Yeah, he’s a junker. Called Junkrat, he’s notorious in Australia for causing mischief. Don’t know what he’s doing up here though.” Tracer seemed to be listening to something you couldn’t here, probably a headset in her other ear. She paused a moment while she listened, “he doesn’t seem to be cooperating.” You kept studying him through the window, he was hunched over as if he was carrying something heavy that they couldn’t see, looking at him now you thought his named suited him. He looked a lot like a rat. “He also smells worse than anything McCree has ever smelt.” Tracer pulled a face at something McCree must have compared it to.

“What are they gonna do with him.” You glanced him over again, you couldn’t see anything from up here that indicated the cleverness behind the bomb you had seen. You wondered if maybe you’d get a chance to speak with Junkrat too, ask him about his bombs. If the way he looked was any indication, it would be an interesting conversation to say the least.

“We’ll have to lock him up somewhere if he doesn’t cooperate. But we can’t let him go. Not until we know why he was here.” She scrunched up her nose as if remembering how he smelt. “Weird though, we’ve never had problems with junkers before.”

You all sat in silence for a little longer, eventually Winston seemed to give up on the intruder and Reinhardt and McCree dragged him off to wherever they planned on keeping him. Tracer stood up, stretching out her arms and dragging a yawn out from you.

“Let’s get you two set up in rooms for now. Tomorrow we can get everything sorted.” 

Tracer led the way to a hallway of rooms, they all had name plates on them, but most were empty. She gave you both rooms across from each other but pointed out that her room was just at the end of the hallway.

“So if you need anything, knock on the door. Although, they might lock your rooms for the night.” She bit her lip in afterthought but waved it off. “There’s bathrooms in each rooms, and I’ll come fetch you for breakfast in the morning.” She waited for you to nod, indicating that you were okay with the room before she smiled and let the doors close behind you.

The first thing you did was check to see if the door actually was locked. Which is was. You supposed that was fine, it wasn’t like you could leave the base even if you wanted to. The second thing you did was take the the scrap bomb out of your bag. You were glad they didn’t check it or they would have confiscated it for sure. You wanted to look at it more, although you studied explosives you had never seen one in real life and this was a promising advancement in your knowledge.

You didn’t have a change in clothes so you just crawled onto the small bed wearing what you had, if you did have to stay for a couple days you’d have to ask about clothes.


	3. Chapter 3

You woke to a stream of light hitting your face at an angle that you were unfamiliar with. Wasn’t your bed on the other side of the room? The disorientation left you with a hazy, dream like confusion, as if you were sure you had woken up too late for work or class and had yet to look at the clock to confirm your mistake. You reached for where your clock would normally be, but realized in its place was a standard lamp that you did not own. The shock of misplacement brought the memories of the night back to you and the sleep washed off you in a cold wave.

Overwatch. You were in Overwatch.

You sprung from the bed, a mixture of fear, and childlike excitement controlling your legs as you ran to the door, only to find it locked. That’s right, Tracer had said the door would lock for security. You leaned against the door and let your heart beat faster for a moment. Every child dreams of meeting their heroes, in fact you knew several people who had never stopped talking about how they wanted to meet the heroes of Overwatch, but none that actually had. You yourself had given up after the disbanding of the group, insisting that it would be stupid to get so caught up on something that didn’t exist anymore. And yet…

The room was silent, and although it was full of boxes the lack of any personal touch made it feel empty. A single bed with plain white sheets still distraught from your presence was in the middle of the far wall, with only space for a single nightstand between the edge of the bed and the wall. A window curtained by prison bars spread light into the room, illuminating the dust floating in the air. Boxes took up most of the free space, all seal with tape that read ‘FRAGILE’ in thick, red letters over and over. It almost looked like a college dorm, with a undertone of military when you took in the barred window and impersonal styling. There was a small bathroom to your right, a sliding door pulled aside allowed you to see it contained a toilet, standing shower barely big enough for one person and a sink. Definitely a military vibe.

You knocked your head against the door subconsciously; this was a base after all, it would make sense for the accommodations to be modest, and efficient. The room would probably look different with personal belongings littering it instead of dusty boxes. You wondered what tracer’s would look like? A brief image of posters saying “keep calm and tea on” poked your imagination and you smiled. Maybe you would get a chance to see her room sometime? Assuming there was time for that.

There was a brief warning in the form of an accepting beep before the door slid open behind you, sending your weight backwards into the now open hallway. The thump on the ground sounded worse than it hurt, but you still winced as you tried once again to get your orientation.

“Woah luv, sorry ‘bout that!” Tracer’s cheery voice swooped down as she squatted in front of you to make sure you were okay. “Didn’t think you’d be leaning against the door like that.” She offered a hand to you and you allowed her to pull you to you feet with a strength that did not match her petite figure.

“I was looking around.” You said unnecessarily, not really sure that she had asked for an explanation on why you were leaning against the door but needing to provide one anyway. Tracer glanced into the room and pursed her lips.

“They aren’t much of a sight I know, but you get comfortable.” She winked and threw an arm around your shoulder, closing the door and turning you down the hallway. “Your friend is already eating breakfast with the gang, I woulda gotcha both at the same time but Winston wanted to get one of your background checks out of the way.” She led you back down the stairs you briefly remembered going up the night before. 

You tried to pay more attention this time, remembering the cool steel of the walls, the lack of decorations but the overflow of tech. Every door Tracer led you through had what seemed to be a security scanner, though none of them seemed to working or at least on at the moment. The emptiness of the place reflected in the echo of your footsteps, but as you walked further down a hallway it was joined by a chorus of voices talking along with the clinking of cutlery. A doorway up a head spilled light into the hallway and the silhouette of people moving indicated this much be their dining room.

“I think everyone’s here right now, so you’ll get to meet the whole gang!” Tracer pulled you ahead excitedly, nearly dragging you into the doorway unceremoniously. “Good Morning Everyone!” She cheered, waving her free hand above her head enthusiastically as her eyes scanned the room to smile at each face.

You noticed McCree sitting at one end of the table, a small mug in his hand that you assumed to be coffee, he wore the same outfit you saw him in the night before; his serape draped over his shoulders, though it was pulled away from his chest in a manner that suggested he didn’t particularly wish to spill anything on it. He wore a simple white shirt underneath, slightly wrinkled in a way that made you think it wasn’t a clean shirt to begin with. His hat rested on the table beside his coffee cup, a real life cowboy. You looked up at his face, noting the scruffy beard and tired eyes, but he gave you a smile that was pure sugar and nodded his head politely. You smiled back, mimicking the head nod.

Reinhardt was handing out food, his massive frame impossible to miss in the room of people, though he wasn’t wearing the armor he was yesterday. You were surprised to note that his frame was just as intimidating without the armor, from all the pictures and videos of overwatch you always believed the armor to be the reason why he appeared so massive. Yet here he was, the picture of domesticity as he handout of plates loaded with food to each person sitting at the table, seemingly defying all sense with how gentle he was being with hands that seemed to be larger than your head. When he noticed you looking he smile and loudly called out good morning, his voice booming through the room every bit as commanding as his presence.

Mercy was perched delicately in the seat across from McCree, sipping on a matching cup of coffee with a half eaten plate of food in front of her. She held the image of someone who hadn’t slept much, if at all, in her shoulders. Slumping forward slightly, holding the coffee in both hands just below her lips as if it would bring her back to life any time now. She spared you a glance and a smile, but it wasn’t quite as warm as the others. You wondered if she still distrusted you or if it was just because it was early. You really couldn’t blame her anyway, although the morning thing would be more relatable for you.

Sylvie sat at the table beside McCree, happily eating her own plate of food among other members that you hadn’t seen before. Tracer ushered you to a seat across from Sylvie, beside Mercy as Reinhardt placed a plate in front of you.

“Didja want a cup, luv?” Tracer thumbed towards McCree’s mug and you nodded. “How do ya like it?”

“Uh, black please. I don’t take anything in it.” Tracer smiled and zipped away, you didn’t think anyone could properly get used to her movements.

“Gotta respect a lady that takes it black,” A southern drawl noted, you looked back at McCree who was still smiling at you warmly. “Name’s McCree, don’t think we’ve met yet.” He nodded at you again and you wondered if it was something he just did. You gave him your name and smiled back awkwardly, you were still a little starstruck in their presence but you were trying not to show it. Sylvie seemed to be comfortable enough with the situation; how long had she been up and mingling?

“You have to meet Torbjorn! I told him about you defusing the bomb. He’s the engineer for Overwatch!” Sylvie reach out a hand to grab yours and shook it slightly, you looked over at the small man sitting to her right.

Of course you had heard of Torbjorn, but you hadn’t seen many pictures of him. The engineering mastermind behind the defenses of Overwatch, he was rarely on the front lines and therefore never usually in the media’s attention. He had no hair on his head, but his beard fell longer than Sylvie’s, braided into two pigtails and ended with some sort of metal cinch. You didn’t want to laugh at his height, but you couldn’t help the small smile at the fact that his head just barely peaked over the table. Short and stout, he almost reminded you of the dwarves from Snow White.

“Nice to meet ye, mighty impressed with yer quick thinkin’ skills.” He raised his mug in salute, you mentally replaced the coffee with a beer in your mind and the image made more sense. You liked Torbjorn immediately, hopefully if you were allowed to stay you and him could sit down and talk about his turrets.

Tracer zipped back, placing a cup of coffee in front of you as she settled in the seat next to you with her own food.

“Winston’s still in his office, so when you’re done eating I’ll take you in for your background check.” She smiled before digging into her food. You looked down at your plate, there was honestly enough food for two people but you weren’t feeling too hungry.

Not that you had anything to be nervous about really; you knew you weren’t a spy for some anti-overwatch group, and yet you still couldn’t bring yourself to not worry about it. You still wanted to look at some overwatch tech, to pick Winston’s brain to try and pick up on some of the things he worked on and how he managed to create them. It was a learning experience that you couldn’t pass up, but you weren’t quite sure how you would convince Winston that it could work.

“You’re not eating, Jesse?” Mercy commenting, finishing the last of her toast as she eyed his hat. “You didn’t eat anything last night either if I recall, are you unwell?” Her voice was clinical, but concerned. Every inch of her the medic.

“Naw, I just ain’t had much of an appetite since I smelled the rat.” He scrunched his nose and took a long gulp of his coffee. “I don’t think I’ll be able to eat anything for a least a week after being near him.”

Tracer laughed, “someone could always volunteer to bath the fella.” McCree gave her a withering look which only made her laugh more.

“Easy for you to say, Lena. You haven’t smelled him yet.” She snorted and McCree relented with a small smile himself.

“Still, we really should do something about him.” Mercy noted, placing her cup down. “We still don’t know what a Junker is doing all the way in Gibraltar. Long way to go without a purpose.”

“Who is he?” You asked, forgetting your setting while eating. The sudden silence and looks from the others quickly reminded you and you shrunk in your seat embarrassed. “Sorry, I guess it’s none of my business.” 

“Not all all; you’re caught up in this mess too.” Tracer said, elbowing you slightly. “S’not like its a secret anyway, you could look him up in old papers and get the same info.”

“Junkrat is a Junker from Australia.” Mercy said, looking at you with the same clinical expression. “When the Omnic wars hit their country, those who survived were forced to scavenge and fight as a means to survive. They ended up being called Junkers.” You nodded, you had heard of the Omnic war affecting other countries, Junkers was a term that you briefly recalled hearing in history. “Junkrat is infamous for causing the most trouble. He’s stolen quite a few valuables and has a bounty on his head in nearly every country.”

“His bounty ain’t as high as mine though.” Jesse noted, lifting his mug to you and smirking, 

“I don’t think that’s something you should be proud of, Jesse.” Mercy retorted critically, giving him what could almost be considered a glare. “Regardless of his bounty, he’s known to be a problem which is why we need to figure out why he’s here to begin with.”

The rest of breakfast was eaten in a contemplative silence. You thought about the Junker, wondering what could possibly bring someone across an ocean to break into what was supposed to be an abandoned building. Unless he knew that overwatch had started to form again? But then it would make even less sense for him to break in alone, he should have at least had someone with him. Perhaps he was mad, you had heard the radiation in the Australian omnic crisis had poisoned the minds of those that stayed there, it could be as simple at that; Junkrat was insane, so he did things that didn’t make sense.

That was the easiest solution, although it didn’t have anything to do with you really. You couldn’t help but feel something was wrong about assuming he was just crazy though. You thought back to his clever design on the bomb, you had thought it was the work of a genius.

Well, the line between genius and madman was known to be a little thin.

You barely noticed Tracer prodding you in the side again until she stood up.

“Winston’s paging for us, luv. Best go get your check done.”

After a sympathetic look from Sylvie and an encouraging smile from McCree you followed Tracer back out into the hallway, too occupied by your worried mind to look at your surroundings this time. If it was a simple background check then all he would need was her name, but this was Overwatch and their tech was too far advanced for a simple police check you would think. What kind of devices did they have set up for detecting spies and enemies among their ranks? Was it something along the lines of a lie detector and questions? Or was it something harsher? Although she didn’t think Overwatch would perform feats equal to torture, she also knew that they had to have some more extreme things set up for non-cooperative captors.

Like Junkrat.

She shuddered, not that she cared about him in any way, but she didn’t think anyone deserved to be hurt. She hoped they weren’t doing anything of the sort to him.

Tracer had led her back to the main room they had first met in, Winston standing in almost the same spot as they entered.

“Thank you Lena, if you wouldn’t mind.” Tracer seemed to take the queue, and with a quick wink at you she was gone leaving you and Winston alone in the room. “This shouldn’t take too long, you’ve eaten already?” Winston was typing things, obviously setting something up ask he spoke.

“Yes.” You wondered if now would be a good time to ask questions? Probably not. You should wait until after the background check; after proving you weren’t an enemy your questions would seem less suspicious.

“I’m just going to have Athena run a scan based off your information.” He turned and smiled. “Athena is our artificial intelligence monitor for the base. Made her myself. She’ll be able to pull up all of your records and determine if you’re a threat.” He tapped a button and a red light scanned your body quickly, forcing you to squint at the sudden contact with your eyes.

There was a moment of whirring from the system before a feminine voice spoke, reciting your name, birthdate, town of birth and what seemed like every bit of recorded information from your life. What schools you went to, your family history, medical records; you were surprised she didn’t start reciting things from your diary. Winston made no move to talk, he was only leaning against the table beside him, his eyes closed as her listened to the information Athena was reciting. You couldn’t help but realized your life sounded rather boring when told back to you, but then again Athena couldn’t tell you about all the nights spent with friends, all the times you went on adventures, or the hours you spent studying the things you loved. Or maybe she could and the information just didn’t matter in this context.

“Analysis complete. Threat level: 0” Athena finally concluded, the whirring stopping and the room flooding with silence. You stood awkwardly, oddly relieved despite knowing all along that you weren’t a threat to Overwatch.

Winston came over and laid a large hand on your shoulder.

“Glad to hear it, not that I really considered you a threat.” He lowered his glasses, peering over them to get a good look at you. “You don’t seem like the dishonest type.” He smiled and turned away, typing a few things into his computer as he continued. “You and your friend should be good to go, we’ll have Tracer escort you off the property and then we’ll go on with our days as normal. As long as you don’t mention Overwatch at all. To anyone.”

You nodded before realizing he couldn’t see you.

“I wouldn’t dream of mentioning it, I mean..with Overwatch unsanctioned this is a highly illegal project you have running.” Winston turned and gave you a sharp look. Why did you say that? Why couldn’t you just shut your mouth and say ‘yes sir’? “Although it’s unreliable, me just saying I won’t tell. It would almost be irresponsible to let me go.” You could see you had his full attention, whether that was a good thing or bad thing. Internally screaming at yourself, your voice sounded confident, if a bit sarcastic. “Definitely not something I would advise.”

“What would you advise?” Winston asked, crossing his arms over his chest and pinning you with a menacing look. You were playing a stupid game, but it was your only chance.

“Keeping me here.”

The room paused, you felt like more than just one pair of eyes was glancing you over. Athena was there too you supposed, analyzing the situation. Had your threat level increased since you opened your mouth? Or was Athena smart enough to see through your bluff.

“Your advice is for us to keep you as a prisoner?”

“Not a prisoner,” you amended, trying to keep your eye contact steady. “I’m intelligent, I’ve studied many things in University, including explosives which doesn’t seem to be your bases favorite form of attack.” The biggest bluff. You had no idea if Gibraltar could deal with explosives, you hadn’t seen where the other bomb had gone off, you didn’t know if the base had sustained any noticeable damage. “I could help get the base up and running again, I’m sure if I could sit with you and go over the tech you have we could find improvements to make it better.” 

“Overwatch is not a classroom, it’s dangerous to be associated with us - even more so now that we’re banned from forming up. Both your life and your freedom would be at risk if you were to stay.”

“I wouldn’t be going on missions, I know that’s not something I’m capable of. I could just stay here assist around the base.” You were slipping from confident to pleading, you could hear it in your voice, but the words were already tumbling. “I believe in Overwatch’s cause, I don’t care if the UN doesn’t. I would help Overwatch whether it was considered legal or illegal. Every child dreams of meeting their heroes, I dream of helping them.”

How many times could silence wash the room? Another wave and suddenly you couldn’t hold Winston’s eyes anymore. You looked down at your feet, slightly ashamed to have shouted out like that. You weren’t a child, and you had slightly threatened one of the largest organizations in history. There was no way someone like you could be a member of Overwatch.

He wasn’t saying no though, in fact he wasn’t saying anything. You raised your eyes cautiously and noticed he wasn’t looking at you, instead he was looking somewhere slightly to the left with a hand placed at her ear.

He was wearing a com. Good lord, was everyone wearing coms? Could they all hear what you just said? You couldn’t remembering anyone else wearing a com, but you hadn’t really checked for one. Tracer had been wearing one last night, so it was safe to assume everyone had one. You tried to read Winstons face, who was he talking to? If it was just Tracer you could live with the embarrassment of the outburst, but anyone else you think you’d have to crawl under a rock.

“I guess you have a good point.” Winston pinched the bridge of his nose, but there was a smile on his face.

“Wicked!” Tracers voice just behind you forced a small squeak out of you. You hadn’t noticed her come in, not that you ever noticed her. She grabbed you in a tight hug and spun you around with a strength that slightly terrified you. “I love getting new teammates!”

“What?” You waited until Tracer finally let you go before reaching out a hand to grasp her arm and steady you, “what do you mean?” You were too confused to hope she meant what you thought she meant.

“Tracer made a convincing argument for why you would be useful around here, I think we might be able to make use of you on Overwatch after all.” He leaned back against the table, “on base only of course. No missions.”

You couldn’t help it as your feet vaulted you forward, your arms throwing themselves around Winston (as much as they could because woah he was larger than you thought). In that moment it felt like Christmas, or your birthday, or some exciting mix of both. You felt another body hit your back and noticed Tracer had joined in on the hug. 

Winston forced and awkward cough.

“Yes, well. Lena can show you around a bit. I’ll have to set you up in Athena’s system for clearance. I’ll call you back when I’m ready for your briefing.” You released him quickly, watching as Tracer gave him a quick salute before grabbing your arm and leading you from the room.

“I was so excited to hear you say you wanted to stay! I knew you were a smart one, I was thinking of asking the big guy myself.” Tracer hummed as she led you back down the hallway towards the kitchen, but instead of following it back to the noise of everyone else she led you down a hallway to the right. “I’ll just show you the other rooms, like the training room, the weapons room, the simulations - oh and of course the workshops. I’m sure we can set you up in one of them.”

“Uh, Tracer…”

“Please call me Lena! We’re a team now, ya?” 

“Lena,” you tested, feeling a warmth in your chest. “How many of the others had coms in?” You pictured McCree and Torbjorn drinking coffee while listening to your childhood dream and immediately thought about how you could ask to go home after being allowed to stay. Tracer laughed.

“Don’t be embarrassed, all of us have some sort of child-like dream associated with being on Overwatch. If we didn’t have a passion for it, we wouldn’t be here, now would we?” You nodded, still feeling the warmth in your cheeks. “Only me and Angela, uh Mercy, had ours in. McCree almost never wears his, despite Winston insisting he needs to, and Torbjorn and Reinhardt only wear them when they’re in their armor.” She winked at you, although that made you feel a little better, the thought of Mercy hearing you still made you slightly uncomfortable. She didn’t seem to like you, and you didn’t want her to think of you as childish.

“What did you say to Winston to convince him? I didn’t think anything I said would have brought him around to let me stay.” She paused and tapped her nose.

“I mentioned that if we’re supposed to be hiding from the public, whose gonna do our groceries?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm incredibly sorry for the long wait for this chapter, I got a promotion at work! But that also meant a month of training and getting accommoded which has me dead tired every day.
> 
> Thank you also for such nice messages! I'm hoping for longer, more frequent chapters here on out.  
> Stay tuned for Chapter 4, where we finally get to see Junkrat face to face ;)

**Author's Note:**

> I have a crush on the rat, so I decided to write about it. This will be a slow-burn romance so sit back and enjoy the slow, tortuous agony of developing feelings for someone.


End file.
